FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 21, 2023
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, President Biden is scheduled to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Defense Priorities Policy Director Benjamin H. Friedman issued the following statement in response:
“The United States and Ukraine have different interests, an obvious truth obscured by the rhetorical excesses favored by U.S. political leaders, especially President Biden. Ukraine has everything on the line in their war and thus want all the U.S. help they can get. They seek, for understandable reasons, to get us into direct combat with Russia.
“U.S. interests in the war are much more limited. The defeat of Russia is a good thing for Americans and already substantively accomplished. Ukraine’s success combined with Moscow’s ineptitude has blunted Russia’s threat to European allies. Ukraine regaining its pre-war borders is not a U.S. security priority. Ukraine’s success is something we may want, but it is not something we need to be safe.
“U.S. policy toward Ukraine should recognize and better reflect our differing interests. President Zelensky should be respected and aided but not treated as a savior whose instructions we follow. The Biden administration should make clear it will not allow the U.S. to be drawn into the war more deeply—and that it will never go to war for Ukraine and risk nuclear conflict for quite limited interests. That means the U.S. cannot be Ukraine’s ally via NATO or promise to protect it by other means. Washington should stop misleading Kyiv about this, which does Ukraine no favors. Finally, the administration should begin to push the burden of defending Ukraine to Europe. European states have more at stake and the collective wealth to do more.”
DEFP report: Neutrality not NATO: Assessing security options for Ukraine
DEFP explainer: Reconfiguring NATO: The case for burden shifting